Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein is a captivating read about how generality and broad life experiences triumph in a world demanding specificity.
Pairs With: an assorted box of chocolates. After all, Forrest Gump had it right, “Life is like a box of chocolates.”
Range by David Epstein is an interesting read about how generality triumphs in a world of specificity. This book is a compilation of studies and examples showing how thinking generally and how having more general life experiences is an advantage over being specialized. Epstein argues that as humans become more siloed in their thinking, we need people who can connect the dots across disciplines. Epstein shows readers that although having more experiences might make you feel behind at first, it pays off in the long run.
Overview
Range is an excellent book for everyone and especially parents. This book goes against most of the advice we’ve been told about how to get ahead. Instead of being narrowly focused on specializing in one particular thing, Epstein argues that it’s important to be able to be a general thinker who can connect disciplines. This book provides countless examples of breakthroughs that happened by people who were able to connect concepts across fields that seemed unrelated.
Interestingly, we often feel the need to specialize as early as possible so we can gain as many skills and experience in that one area in order to get ahead but what Epstein shows is that it is often the people who started “late” that end up being the most successful.
Comfort within Range
I found this book to be comforting for a variety of reasons. The main one is that I’ve never felt like I’ve specialized in anything.
My background
In high school, I was convinced I wanted to be an architect. So freshman year of college I studied architecture and got into a difficult architecture program at my university. By sophomore year I had decided the architecture scene wasn’t for me. There wasn’t enough math involved.
So I switched to studying Math and Math Education. The math nerds and future educators were my people. However, after student teaching and being a long-term sub for middle and high schoolers, I decided teaching wasn’t for me either. I enjoyed math too much and I didn’t care if the kids didn’t like it. I understood it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I was told they needed to learn it. In short, I was a bad teacher.
Then I went to work in finance. What I learned was that people get weird when it comes to money… even when it’s not their own! In finance, there was always a problem. Everything was an emergency and stressful. 6 years in and a shitty manager I couldn’t escape from got to me and I quit my corporate job.
2 weeks after quitting and starting this blog, I suffered a traumatic brain injury. It took me over a year (and still working on it) to heal my brain but here I am.
Now I’m focusing solely on my blog and learning about the entrepreneur world. (Fuck, that’s scary to admit.)
Bouncing Around Isn’t A Bad Thing
That’s been my journey and I have a feeling a lot of yours might look similar – Bouncing from one thing to the next feeling like you’re falling behind because you can’t pick and stick.
However, in Range, Epstein mentions that Van Gogh also bounced around trying out a zillion different career paths before becoming an exceptional painter. And, Epstein explained, “The most momentous personality changes occur between ages eighteen and one’s late twenties, so specializing early is a task of predicting match quality for a person who does not yet exist.”
This book gave me reassurance that all of my seemingly unrelated experiences weren’t a waste. And yours aren’t either!
Conclusion
Range gives readers a lot to think about. Whether it’s their own life experiences, what advice to give their kids, or how they can challenge themselves to think outside of the box.
Epstein does a great job of telling the stories of phenomenal thinkers, scientists, artists, CEOs, etc., and how they achieved great things because of their broad thinking and life experiences.
The book started off slow for me but I found I enjoyed it more as an audiobook. Usually, I’m all about physical copies but for some reason, this one was easier to follow as an audiobook. Overall this is a great book and I can see why so many people love it!
I definitely recommend checking it out and being prepared for it to change how you think about specialization and our world. 10/10 would recommend!
Have you read this one or anything similar?? What did you think?
P.S. If you like this one, you might also enjoy I Didn’t Do the Thing Today by Madeleine Dore! Dore’s book is about relieving productivity guilt and accepting that we’re humans, not robots.
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